Oil inventories of developed nations decline

The oil inventories of main developed countries nearly declined to a latest five-year average level, indicating a possible tipping point from the supply glut, OPEC's latest report on Monday showed.

Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), a 14-member oil producer group, raised its forecast for global oil demand in 2018 slightly, expecting the world to consume 98.85 million barrels a day, 1.65 million barrels a day higher than last year.

The oil cartel's report shows positive signs of the oil market and the joint oil production cut, however, a stronger rivalry from U.S. shale, as it is expected to rise under a relatively higher price.

The data from OPEC show that the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) commercial oil stocks in March fell by 12.7 million barrels from previous month to nearly 2.83 billion barrels. It's also 204 million barrels lower than the same period one year ago and only 9 million barrels above the latest five-year average.

The oil inventories is a key fact of the oil market balance, the decline of the oil stock is sign of the rebalance of the market.

The report is the last one before the oil ministers' meeting in Vienna to discuss the oil production ceiling two weeks later.

In 2016, the OPEC countries reached an agreement in Vienna to reduce daily oil production to boost global oil prices to eliminate the supply glut, the agreement was also supported by 11 non-OPEC states.

OPEC and its allies strictly comply with the oil supply ceiling with a very high conformity in the past months.